Breathing is an involuntary act that keeps a person alive. The quality of air one breathes depends upon the place the person inhabits and the immediate surrounding around the person, whether outdoor or indoor.
Outdoor, ambient, environment pollution is of importance to all, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the total number of persons impacted by COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder) is about 210 Mn. As per CDC (Centre for Disease control, USA), the incidence of COPD in USA is estimated at over 12 Mn. Apart from this it is estimated that about 25 Mn Americans (Adults & Children included) suffer from Asthma. These respiratory illnesses are predominantly caused by the quality of inhaled air. From public health perspective environmental pollution has been extremely well researched. Governments, both at Federal and at State level have been drawing new and more demanding standards to curb increasing pollution. CDC considers air pollution is a leading environmental threat to human health. Particles in the air such as dust, dirt, soot, and smoke are one kind of air pollution that is known to cause health problems. Very fine particles less than 2.5 micro meters are known as particulate matter or PM2.5. These are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs. Thus causing serious illnesses and death. The chemical pollutants would be caused by COx (Carbon Di-Oxide, Carbon Monoxide etc.) NOx, (Nitric Oxide, Nitrous oxide etc.,) SOx (Sulphur dioxide etc.), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), Radon and other such impurities. The biological impurities could be presence of columns of bacteria or virus or other micro organisms that could influence the quality of air. In effect air pollution could be due to physical impurities, chemical impurities or biological factors. Biological pollution is of a growing concern. In recent instances of growth of Bird Flu, Swine Flu and other mutant variations, the biological impurities caused by viruses such as H1N1, H7N9 have been reported.
As regards Indoor Environments advancement of technologies provided for controlled environment through various equipments collectively known as heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipments such as air-conditioning devices that performed different functions such as cooling and heating of air, humidifying and dehumidifying air as required, enabling conditioned working and living environments while being indoor. Inadequate injection of fresh air into such conditioned indoors has created various illnesses and World Health Organization (WHO) in their studies categorized such phenomenon as ‘Sick Building Syndrome’—SBS. The resultant poor ‘Indoor Air Quality’ called IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) has been a subject of serious discussion and debate in the industry and amongst people. As per US EPA (Environment protection agency) there are many sources of indoor air pollution in a home or office or any other building. IAQ along with other parameters such as the acoustic levels in the occupied space, lighting and other factors are called ‘Indoor Environment Quality’—IEQ. A lot of equipments and gadgets are present in the market to enhance Indoor air quality as well as IEQ
Health problems to human beings due to indoor air pollutants may show up after a single exposure or repeated exposures. These include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, nausea and fatigue. Such immediate problems are usually short-term and treatable. Sometimes the treatment is simply eliminating a person's exposure to the source of the pollution, if it can be identified. Certain immediate effects are similar to those from colds or other viral diseases such as nasal irritation, so it is often difficult to determine if the symptoms are a result of exposure to indoor air pollution. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to the time and place symptoms occur. If the symptoms fade or go away when a person is away from home, for example, an effort should be made to identify indoor air sources that may be possible causes. Some effects may be made worse by an inadequate supply of outdoor air or from the heating, cooling, or humidity conditions prevalent in the home. Other health effects may show up either years after exposure has occurred or only after long or repeated periods of exposure. These effects, which include some respiratory diseases, heart disease, and cancer, can be severely debilitating or fatal. It is prudent to try to improve the indoor air quality in your home or office even if symptoms are not noticeable.
The quality of air that one breathes continuously impacts one's health. This will vary depending upon the place the person in, the immediate surrounding environment i.e, the personal environment or personal surrounding around him. While a lot of research and effort has gone into Environmental pollution, as well as IAQ it needs to be noted that it is personal air quality (PAQ) or the air that one breathes would influence the person's health The impact of the quality of air would vary from an individual to an individual. Hence the need to measure, track and monitor the quality of air that the individual breathes
Quite often CO2 is taken as a proxy for the indoor pollution. Recent studies have increased the importance of understanding the CO2 levels in the room. It is also known that for illnesses such as asthma the air that one breathes is of extreme relevance. It is known that high CO2 levels as well as relative humidity of air influences the comfort for asthma patients. Over time and experience a patient learns on the environment where the person is comfortable and would prefer such environment as compared to another environment that the person knows as discomforting. It is also reported that the absenteeism in schools is because of the quality of the indoor air.
Most of the existing HVAC equipment has static settings based on specific set points such as temperature, relative humidity. Some of the advanced equipments have a set of programmed set points or patterns based on which these equipments operate. In a few of the newer control devices, the equipments learn based on the settings and patterns of usage specifically with regard to temperature. However none of these devices provide a dynamically variable preferred setting based on the persons' preferred setting that correlates to his health. For an example if an asthmatic person would prefer an air envelope of say Temperature of 23 to 27 deg. C. with a relative humidity of 50% to 65% and a CO2 level of lesser than 600 ppm in the room, the equipment in his house could be told to provide such environment as much as his office equipment or any other place that he would visit.
Epidemiology is the cornerstone of public health science and equips policy decisions by the Government agencies; the study helps identifying the risk factors for a disease and helps in preventive steps for occurrence of such disease/illness. Every person keeps a record of the illness to enable better medical history and treatment for longevity and quality of life. In these days of advanced technology, medical records and genetic history/genealogy analysis is undertaken to arrive at causes for the illness or as important factors for the specific treatment that would be provided to the person. While such level of information is gathered, seldom does a person have a record of the air that he breathed
There are many existing patent applications which talk about the preferred environment for a building or for a hospital or the like. US2006173580A1 discloses an air quality monitoring systems and methods. The indoor air quality system relates to an air monitoring system that is portable and the parameters to be monitored can be customizable for a specific structure, such as a building or a home and communicates the monitored parameter to the user through internet.
Another PCT application WO2012023136A1 also discloses a device, system and method for personal health monitoring based on multitude-points environmental data. Here, the system or device gets various environmental data raise alerts, but the application does not disclose about enabling the user for adaptive comfort setting based on these data.
None of the existing devices gives alerts when there is a deviation in the preferred settings of the user. There are many devices available which are capable of giving weather conditions such as NETATMO™ and other gadgets that could enable the user to have specific settings, such as those offered by HONEYWELL™. But none of these products or patents discloses a system or method or device for recording and enabling alerts regarding deviations from the preferred personal environment or which helps in setting adaptive comfort for the air conditioner and a cost effective and easy to use. None of these gadgets provide data at the back end for collection of data pertaining to preferred settings of an individual.
There are a few community initiatives to capture the air quality and consolidate the data to map the quality of air in a community. Citisense was one such initiative by University of California, San Diego wherein they created a wearable, low power, air quality and environmental monitoring sensor node that can be used in mobile and stationary settings. The sensor node includes a microcontroller for local data analysis and a Bluetooth transceiver to communicate with a smartphone.
Similarly another project ‘Common Sense Community’ was an initiative by University of California, Berkeley to get novice users to capture data around them with different sensing technologies. While both Citisense/Common sense were initiatives to demonstrate possibilities of integrating technologies, they have not been converted into a device that can capture micro personal environment, namely the inhaled air quality of an individual and to enable preferred settings or enable interaction with other equipments.
Thus there is a need for a system, method and device that would capture the micro personal environment/personal cloud of the air that the individual would seek, inhale, learn from the preferred settings through an user interface the personal preferences, alert in event of deviations from the preferred settings, provide data to the backend server that could through a period of time of accumulated data provide valuable health insights to the person as well as act as the database of several individuals health records to enable health specialists, epidemiologists to study and analyze such data to guide policy formulations.